TalkBox on Windows Phone finally comes to the Marketplace

We've chatted up TalkBox for Windows Phone now for a few weeks. The popular messaging app is already on iOS and Android and now thanks to an excellent beta program, the tried and tested version for Windows Phone is here.

What's TalkBox? It's more than a messaging app because it sends short voice clips in addition to straight text messaging to your contacts, making it a virtually hands free experience. Here are a few other key features that may interest you:

Group Chat - TalkBox is now bringing the collaborative experience to Windows Phone users. Experience the power group chat to engage up to 9 people in a single conversation.

Geo-location and photo sharing - Want to share your current location with your friends when you are heading to a party or to share a snapshot after party? Now you can do it easily through TalkBox!

Text Integration - What if I can’t talk at the moment? You can easily switch to text mode by 1 click and connect with your friend quietly.

Mark as favorite - In Windows Phone, you can mark any important TalkBox message as favorite by 1 click so you will be able to view the important messages faster.

Customized Live Tile - The customized TalkBox Live Tile allows users to preview any unread messages and contact information without launching the app. It is real live and instant.

Change layout color - You might have seen different Windows Phone handsets displaying different colored tiles. For instance, TalkBox comes with 12 theme colors that you can use to match with your phone background.

We're big fans of the app due to the care in its design--it's very Metro and well thought out for Windows Phone instead of just another port. Will it be as good as Kik or WhatsApp? As far as features go, we'd say this is in many ways better but really, the big determinant is whether or not your friends use TalkBox. Seeing as it's a popular app on iOS and Android, you stand a good chance of getting friend-parity.

At the very least though, you should give it a whirl. Heck, if you like it enough no reason you can't get others to switch around you.

Pick up TalkBox on Windows Phone for free in the Marketplace right here. Hit us up in comments and let us know what you think. [We have at least one report that German users may have issues with this app]

So far so good but im having a few issues it won't let me upload a avatar and I dont see any option to link my Facebook and/or twitter page. in the apps description it says u can post your voice to both but I dont see this option anywhere

Push notification seem to be broken on this app. Tested it w/a friend and each time I've to go inside the app to see that I've a msg. Once I exit, or if the app is in bkground, it doesn't notify you of any msg.
Developer, pls fix this crucial part of the app.

I had this problem with Kik, problem was with the device! I had to restart the phone for the notification to come through! I returned the device for another Nokia Lumia 920 and it worked fine there! So ... try restarting!

I have tested this app thoroughly on my Lumia 800. I have it on my iPhone 4 too so testing was a breeze. Lets begin with the initial setup.
1) Everything did go smoothly till the sms verification step. It did take forever for the app to send the sms across and then it crashed. However, the second time I fired it up, it just took a second to complete the whole sending verification message and the verification code was receieved within a flash and the app was setup.
2) The talkbox Agent then takes you through the initial steps like testing a voice message and then testing a voice message with geotags. That step went on smoothly.
3) Since I have Talkbox on my iPhone 4, it did take some time but eventually automatically sent a freind request across to my iPhone 4. I did not link it with a facebook account or sign in with my facebook account BUT created a new account within the app.
4) Now for the IMPORTANT part about Push notifications etc. I sent a voice message with geotag to my windows phone from my iPhone where my windows phone was locked, on a 2G network and in the pocket. The PUSH Came on Instantly as a toast message on my lumia 800 aka Whatsapp. I tested this with a 3G and Wifi network and it worked pretty flawlessly on all three networks. So the Push notifications work great and almost instantaneously like they do on kik or whatsapp.
5) There does seem to be a glitch with setting up your profile Picture at the moment but expect that to change soon with an update. Since its on version 1, one can expect some bugs or crashes but overall the design, UI and execution is pretty darn good and I, for one, can see the windows version of this app become extremely popular in the near future.